The project

Why Welcome Break Fareham is needed

The safety and welfare of motorway users is our top priority. The M27 carries around 90,000 vehicles a day, but is significantly under-served by places to rest, refresh, and refuel – particularly for HGVs accessing the south coast ports.

National Highways policy sets out that the maximum recommended safe distances between service areas on motorways currently stands at 28 miles for cars and, in certain circumstances, 14 miles for HGVs. On other parts of the SRN, i.e. non-motorway trunk roads, the maximum distance should be the equivalent of 30 minutes driving time.

Welcome Break Fareham would reduce the current circa 90-mile gap between Rownhams MSA and the eastern end of the A27 trunk road as well as a 32-mile gap between Winchester MSA on the M3 and the eastern end on the M27. The available services along this stretch offer very limited / no facilities for HGVs, for which there is a critical national and regional demand and lack open-access EV charging infrastructure for which demand is increasing year-on-year.

These factors firmly establish the need for our new MSA to ensure national policy is not being ignored.

EV Charging Facilities

The government has a commitment to ban the sale of all new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars by 2035, which will hugely increase the demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and EV charging points, particularly on motorways and other trunk roads where people undertake longer journeys.

Welcome Break Fareham supports this move towards a greener future by providing plenty of EV spaces. At the time of opening, the MSA will provide 30 rapid EV charging points as well as numerous EV ready charging points which can be deployed quickly as demand requires. The design also ensures a layout that can accommodate even more EV charging spaces in the future, again as demand requires.

Specific need for new HGV facilities

Feeding down to the south coast Channel ports, the M27 carries over 6,000 HGVs on an average day but 86% of HGV facilities across the South East region do not provide accommodation or security features such as lighting, fencing or CCTV which are vital in giving drivers the peace of mind they need to fully relax before heading back on the road. These secure parking facilities for HGVs not only benefit the driver but the local community, preventing dangerous parking from occurring in the local area.

At the most basic level, on-site parking for HGVs in the South East has reached a critical level, causing drivers to struggle to find space to simply rest.

Our proposal directly responds to the inadequate services for HGV drivers.